Elliot Jay Stocks is a designer, speaker, and author. He was previously the Creative Director of Adobe Typekit, and is now the co-founder of lifestyle magazine Lagom, the founder of typography magazine (and soon-to-be book) 8 Faces, and an electronic musician recording as Other Form.

Bristol bound

For those of you who know me personally, you’ll know that I’m something of a vagabond: I’ve moved home ten times in the last nine years, and some basic maths will tell you that that’s an average of more than one move per year. Yikes. So, in a bid to put down some sort of roots, my girlfriend and I are relocating yet again, but this time to somewhere that we can hopefully call home for a while: Bristol.

Many consider Bristol (and, by extension, Bath) to be the one of the UK’s main web design ‘hubs’: the concentration of web professionals living and working in and around the city is extremely high. And while that was one of the main draws for me personally (as so many of my friends are there), there are many reasons we’ve chosen Bristol as our new base.

2. The city is exactly halfway between my family in London and Sam’s family in Shropshire. The motorway and train links are exceptional.
4. We like the countryside, and as Bristol is a small city, it’s very quick and easy to get out into the greener side of things.
6. Having lived in and around London for almost my entire life (besides a brief stint in Norway, a slightly less brief stint in Shropshire, and then this strange last year just outside of Chester), I’ve become used to being close to somewhere with a strong art and music scene. Bristol offers this in abundance (to say the least), but without the stress and chaos of London life, which is what forced me out after 25 years.
8. Brighton was also a consideration for the exact same reasons listed above, except for the location: the distance we need to travel to see family works much better for us in Bristol.

We’ve just put down a holding deposit on a flat, so — assuming all goes well with the tedious contract-writing and referencing process — we should be moving just down the road from the Clifton Suspension Bridge at the end of February, and I’m looking forward to seeing the Bristol / Bath massive very soon!